Nonprofits turning to livelier events for buzz

On a sunny day last fall, Joseph Radelet slipped into a Spiderman costume and prepared to descend 384 feet down the south side of KeyBank Tower in downtown Dayton in a harness.

Radelet, executive director of Big Brothers Big Sisters of the Greater Miami Valley, along with 58 others, rappelled down the building to fundraise for the organization, which pairs youth in the Dayton region with adult mentors in schools and throughout the community.

The event — the first of its kind for the local Big Brothers Big Sisters — took in $52,000, and perhaps as critical, it raised awareness for the nonprofit from coverage in newspapers and on television and radio stations to shared videos on YouTube, Facebook and other social networks.

“It was the single, biggest media coverage event that we’ve ever had,” Radelet said. “We really benefitted from that and needed it as an organization.”

Though charitable organizations across the country reported increased giving from 2010 to 2011 despite a still uncertain economic outlook, nonprofits competing for donation dollars have sought to make a splash when campaigning to raise funds and the general understanding of their cause.

Increased awareness for these organizations helps them garner more donations, but it also serves to recruit volunteers and future leaders, said Jennifer Eschbach, executive director of the Ohio Association of Nonprofit Organizations.

“It’s not always about the bottom line,” she said.

It’s critical, however, that nonprofits weigh the benefits and the associated costs. Many high-profile events can be a drain on resources, especially manpower.

“If they’re really well-run, managed organizations, what they’re going to ask themselves is, is it worth the staff time and money put into it,” Eschbach said. “If it’s involving too much staff time and they didn’t get the return on the investment — the exposure to help drive attention to the organization — then you have to ask yourself if it was a good fundraiser and should we consider it in the future.”

Awareness for an organization is an important piece.

A study by the Nonprofit Research Collaborative released this past month shows that, of 1,600 organizations surveyed earlier this year, the largest amount (12 percent) said the issue that most positively affected their organization in 2011 was “increased awareness,” followed by “successful special events” (9 percent).

Radelet said, when BBBS chose to put on its rappelling fundraiser, it was looking for an event that would take in a high dollar amount and gain widespread attention – “all the things that the rappelling event brought to us.”

The 58 event participants were required to raise a minimum $1,000 to rappel the KeyBank building. BBBS expects to see more rappellers when it hosts the event again.

Since then, Radelet said people have recalled the event when he talks about BBBS.

“It really had legs,” Radelet said. “Afterwards people asked me about it. ... I would introduce myself and I would say, ‘We were the ones who did the rappelling event.’ They would know the event before they knew (BBBS).”

The organization hosts two other fundraisers on an annual basis: A clam bake and a bowling outing. Each takes in $67,000 to $68,000 – more than the rappelling event, but without the media blitz and social network support. BBBS plans to make the rappelling event an annual fundraiser. The organization has a budget of $665,000 for 2012, up from $500,000 in 2010, despite fewer dollars from the national BBBS chapter.

In the same vein, United Rehabilitation Services of Greater Dayton receives annual attention for its Rubber Duck Regatta.

This past year, URS dropped 15,000 sponsored rubber ducks into the Little Miami River and floated a win for the organization with almost $83,000 in funds raised between adopted ducks, which cost $5 each, and event sponsorships.

URS moved the event last year from a Friday in June to a Saturday in September to coincide with the Taste of Miami Valley festival to boost its visibility. Vivian O’Connell, special events manager for URS, said the organization sold 4,000 more ducks as a result.

More than that, about six million people potentially were reached through more than 100 media write-ups, social networks and other avenues, O’Connell said.

URS has scheduled the ninth annual regatta for Sept. 15 at RiverScape MetroPark. Ducks go on sale in July.

URS provides services for more than 4,000 disabled persons in the region. O’Connell said the group hosts 11 other events, meant to plug a $500,000 budget gap between what it spends to provide child care and other programs and what it makes in return for those services.

Its annual telethon pulls in about $100,000, making it the largest fundraiser for URS, which has a budget of $6 million for 2012.

“It’s important to have people pay attention,” said Dennis Grant, URS executive director. “It’s one of the reasons for having high-profile (events).”

The challenge for these organizations when putting on events that attract attention is to ensure their name is associated with it.

“A lot of people don’t know who we are,” O’Connell said of URS.

When URS moved its regatta to RiverScape and tied it to the Taste of Miami Valley, it hoped to further knot the duck drop to opportunities to support disabled persons through participation.

Eschbach of OANO said the best way to make that connection is to provide testimonials from individuals assisted by the organization hosting the event, whether on distributed fliers or from live speakers.

“Every step of the way, there has to be some component of the organization,” Eschbach said. “Doing that live testimonial storytelling is a good way to do that. Making sure that every piece of literature has that storytelling as well, including those cards in the back where they sign in.”